Mauricio Pochettino says USMNT aiming for surprise World Cup semifinal

U.S. men's national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino has said his team will look to replicate the success of surprise World Cup semifinalists Morocco and South Korea this summer.

The USMNT will go into a World Cup on home soil aiming to make a deep run and inspire the country to back the team on its journey.

That would be very similar to what South Korea accomplished in 2002, when it went all the way to the final four during a World Cup that it co-hosted with Japan.

Twenty years later, Morocco became the first African World Cup semifinalist during the 2022 tournament in Qatar. The Atlas Lions played close enough to their home country to provide a home-field advantage for many of their games.

Backed by a partisan crowd this summer, Pochettino is dreaming of his team putting together a similar run.

"In football, logic rarely holds," the USMNT coach said in an interview with L'Equipe. "There are no mathematical equations to predict a result. That's also why it's the most beautiful sport in the world — because it can be unjust. It's about being competitive, but also mastering the emotional factors. It's a good blend of the logical and the illogical, the rational and the irrational.

"Starting from the principle that we have a quality group with a strong mentality and the support of the home crowd,everything is in place to generate positive energy and attempt what South Korea and Morocco achieved in 2002 and 2022."

The USMNT has reached the World Cup semifinal once, but that was in 1930 in a tournament that looks far different from the one that will take place this summer.

The U.S. won two group-stage games before automatically reaching the semifinal of the 13-team tournament, where it was hammered 6-1 by Argentina.

In the modern era, the USMNT has advanced only once beyond the round of 16, when it defeated Mexico in 2002 to reach the quarterfinal. That team coached by Bruce Arena narrowly lost to Germany in the last eight.

This summer will see 48 teams compete in the World Cup for the first time. With the competition now featuring a round of 32, the USMNT would have to win three consecutive knockout-stage matches to reach the semifinal.

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